There remains substantial agreement among the international community on many aspects of the contemporary UN drug control regime. However, diverging views on the non-medical and non-scientific use of a range of controlled substances make drug policy an increasingly contested and transitionary field of multinational cooperation. Employing a fine-grained and interdisciplinary approach, this book provides the first integrated analysis of the sources, manifestations and sometimes paradoxical implications of this divergence. The author develops an original explanatory framework through which to understand better the dynamic and tense intersection between policy shifts at varying levels of governance and the regime's core prohibitive norm. Highlighting the centrality of the harm reduction approach and tolerant cannabis policies to an ongoing process of regime transformation, this book examines the efforts of those actors seeking to defend the existing international control framework and explores rationales and scenarios which may lead to the international community moving beyond it.

In More Harm Than Good, Carter, Boyd and MacPherson take a critical look at the current state of Canadian drug policy and raise key questions about the effects of Canada s increasing involvement in and commitment to the war on drugs. A primer on Canadian drug policy, the analysis in More Harm Than Good is shaped by critical sociology and feminist perspectives on drugs and incorporates insights not only from individuals who are on the front lines of drug policy in Canada treatment and service workers but also from those who live with the consequences of that policy on a daily basis people who use criminalized drugs. Finally, the authors propose realistic alternatives to today s failed policy approach. "

The War on Drugs has led to millions of people dead, displaced and incarcerated. Disproportionately enforced on oppressed races, international drug prohibition has reinforced the colour line across the globe. While laws prohibiting the production, sale and use of particular drugs are presented as politically neutral and objective, this collection reveals the racist impact of the War on Drugs across multiple continents and in numerous situations. From racialised drugs policing at festivals in the UK to the necropolitical wars in Juarez, Mexico and from the exchange of drug policing programs between the United States and Israel to the management of black bodies in Brazil, this collection proves that the regulation of drugs and race is an international, and intentional, disaster. Pushing forward the debate and activism led by groups such as Black Lives Matter and calling for radical changes in drug policy legislation and prison reform, both nationally and internationally, this collection cuts deep and rings true for all people fighting racism today.

Innocent people are regularly convicted of crimes they did not commit. A number of systemic factors have been found to contribute to wrongful convictions, including eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, informant testimony, official misconduct, and faulty forensic evidence. In Miscarriages of Justice in Canada, Kathryn M. Campbell offers an extensive overview of wrongful convictions, bringing together current sociological, criminological, and legal research, as well as current case-law examples. For the first time, information on all known and suspected cases of wrongful conviction in Canada is included and interspersed with discussions of how wrongful convictions happen, how existing remedies to rectify them are inadequate, and how those who have been victimized by these errors are rarely compensated. Campbell reveals that the causes of wrongful convictions are, in fact, avoidable, and that those in the criminal justice system must exercise greater vigilance and openness to the possibility of error if the problem of wrongful conviction is to be resolved.

With contributions from seven of Mexico's finest journalists, this is reportage at its bravest and most necessary - it has the power to change the world's view of their country, and by the force of its truth, to start to heal the country's many sorrows. Supported the Arts Council Grant's for the Arts Programme and by PEN Promotes Veering between carnival and apocalypse, Mexico has in the last ten years become the epicentre of the international drug trade. The so-called "war on drugs" has been a brutal and chaotic failure (more than 160,000 lives have been lost). The drug cartels and the forces of law and order are often in collusion, corruption is everywhere. Life is cheap and inconvenient people - the poor, the unlucky, the honest or the inquisitive - can be "disappeared" leaving not a trace behind (in September 2015, more than 26,798 were officially registered as "not located"). Yet people in all walks of life have refused to give up. Diego Enrique Osorno and Juan Villoro tell stories of teenage prostitution and Mexico's street children. Anabel Hernandez and Emiliano Ruiz Parra give chilling accounts of the "disappearance" of forty-three students and the murder of a self-educated land lawyer. Sergio Gonzalez Rodriguez and Marcela Turati dissect the impact of the violence on the victims and those left behind, while Lydia Cacho contributes a journal of what it is like to live every day of your life under threat of death. Reading these accounts we begin to understand the true nature of the meltdown of democracy, obscured by lurid headlines, and the sheer physical and intellectual courage needed to oppose it.

An astonishing and revelatory memoir by two women who escaped the glamorous yet deadly international drug trade. Mia Flores and Olivia Flores live under assumed names. To their neighbours, they are typical single mothers, their days filled with school runs and PTA meetings. But Olivia and Mia are anything but ordinary. They live in fear, hiding from a past that included wealth beyond their wildest dreams but also more danger than they ever could have imagined. Mia and Olivia are married to the highest level American drug traffickers ever to become US informants, Chicago-born twin brothers Margarito and Pedro Flores. These men worked with - and then brought down - dozens of high-level members of the Mexican cartels, most significantly notorious kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. The brothers and their wives had everything money could buy - luxury cars, huge houses and expensive jewellery - but came to understand that the vast wealth that accompanied cartel life came with the ever-present threat of kidnapping, death or imprisonment. Choosing their families over money, they decided to give it all up and cooperate with the US government. Now, from behind the cloak of witness protection, Olivia and Mia have come forward for the first time to tell the full story of their family's decision to risk everything and seek redemption. Cartel Wives is a love story, an insider's look into a terrifying but high-flying modern-day drug empire and, finally, the story of a major federal government operation to bring down one of the most feared men in the world.

'A thriller-like tale ... [Mazur] is a good story-teller, with a flair for details that brings the criminal and their world to life' Daily Mail 'Bob Mazur delivers again ... he artfully takes the reader through the harrowing account of life as an undercover cop embedded in the drug cartels' BRYAN CRANSTON 'A book you can't put down, nor will you' JOSEPH PISTONE, aka Donnie Brasco From the bestselling author who inspired Bryan Cranston's The Infiltrator. Three years after undercover agent Robert Mazur infiltrated Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel, he re-emerged, a half-million-dollar bounty still on his head, with a new identity for a risky new sting. Deployed to Panama, he worked, travelled, partied and washed millions with Central America's criminal elite. Partnered with a DEA task force agent, Mazur slipped effortlessly into Colombia's notorious Cali drug cartel. But as his underworld reputation skyrocketed, the operation started going dangerously off the rails. Robert Mazur's riveting true story exposes the corruption at the heart of one of the most explosive undercover missions of his career. Refusing to acknowledge the danger, Mazur was obsessed with seeing the mission through to its treacherous end: expose the Cali cartel, find out who betrayed him, and escape with his life. This is his true story.

The product of five years' investigative reporting, the subject of intense national controversy,
and the source of death threats that forced the National Human Rights Commission to assign
two full-time bodyguards to its author, Anabel Hernandez, "Narcoland" has been a publishing
and political sensation in Mexico.
The definitive history of the drug cartels, "Narcoland" takes readers to the front lines of the
"war on drugs," which has so far cost more than 60,000 lives in just six years. Hernandez explains
in riveting detail how Mexico became a base for the mega-cartels of Latin America and one of the
most violent places on the planet. At every turn, Hernandez names names--not just the narcos,
but also the politicians, functionaries, judges and entrepreneurs who have collaborated with them.
In doing so, she reveals the mind-boggling depth of corruption in Mexico's government
and business elite.
Hernandez became a journalist after her father was kidnapped and killed and the police refused
to investigate without a bribe. She gained national prominence in 2001 with her exposure
of excess and misconduct at the presidential palace, and previous books have focused on
criminality at the summit of power, under presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon.
In awarding Hernandez the 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom, the World Association of Newspapers
and News Publishers noted, "Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries in the
world for journalists, with violence and impunity remaining major challenges in terms of press
freedom. In making this award, we recognize the strong stance Ms. Hernandez has taken, at great
personal risk, against drug cartels."

"From the Hardcover edition."

Richard Stratton was the unlikeliest of kingpins. A clean-cut college boy who entered outlaw culture on a university trip to Mexico, he saw his search for a joint morph into a thrill-filled dope run smuggling two kilos across the border in his car door. He never looked back. Stratton became a member of the hippie mafia, travelling the world to keep America high, living the underground life while embracing the hippie credo, rejecting hard drugs in favour of marijuana and hashish. With cameos by Whitey Bulger and Norman Mailer, Smuggler tells Stratton's adventure while centring on his last years in the business as he travels from New York to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to source and smuggle high-grade hash in the midst of civil war, from the Caribbean to the backwoods of Maine and from the Chelsea Hotel to the Plaza. As Stratton's fortunes rise and fall, he's pursued all the while by his nemesis, a philosophical DEA agent who respects him for his good business practices.

At first glance, Gabriel Cardona is an exemplary American teenager: athletic, bright, handsome and charismatic. But his Texas town is poor and dangerous, and it isn't long before Gabriel abandons his promising future for the allure of the Zetas, a drug cartel with roots in the Mexican military. Meanwhile, Mexican-born Detective Robert Garcia has worked hard all his life and is now struggling to raise his family in America. As violence spills over the border, Detective Garcia's pursuit of the Zetas puts him face to face with the urgent consequences of a war he sees as unwinnable. In Wolf Boys, Dan Slater takes readers on a harrowing, moving, and often brutal journey into the heart of the Mexican drug trade - from the Sierra Madre mountaintops to the smuggling ports of Veracruz, from cartel training camps and holiday parties to the dusty alleys of South Texas. Ultimately though, Wolf Boys is the intimate and vivid story of the 'lobos': teens turned into pawns for cartels. A non-fiction thriller, it reads with the emotional clarity of a great novel, yet offers its revelations through extraordinary reporting.

An astonishing read -- full of corruption, greed, strong drink and stronger language -- that reveals the rotten heart of the global economy - Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland Crackles along ... they deserve credit for exposing the dark underbelly of the jewellery industry and giving us another glimpse into the real cost of the global obsession with gold - Spectator __________ All that glitters is not gold. Gold is the new cocaine - and it's just as lucrative, dangerous, and destructive. __________ Dirty Gold is a searing expose on the booming gold mining industry and destruction on the land and people of Latin America. It looks closely at a small US firm in Miami that helped transform the city into the nation's No.1 importer of gold into the United States. The book follows the meteoric rise and fall of a group of drug traders known as 'the three amigos' who laundered narco money through gold illegally brought into the US and raked in millions before they were caught. Whilst they were making their millions, the humanitarian situation in Colombia, Peru, and many other countries deteriorated dramatically.

The Middle East is intimately involved in the is- sue of illegal drugs which affects all the countries of the region: as a cultivator (Morocco, Lebanon); transit hub (Iran, Turkey); and consumer (Egypt). Yet, until now, there has been precious little research on any of these issues, especially in a comparative manner. This book, the first in any language to focus on illicit drugs in the Middle East, will surprise many readers. The consumption of qat in Yemen or cultivation of cannabis in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley is hardly news, but the extent of amphetamine use in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States or the international role of Israeli narcotics manufactures and traffickers is less well known. Based on extensive research and interaction with law enforcement agencies, the public and private health sectors, drug-centric NGOs, and recovering drug abusers, Middle East Drugs Bazaar focuses on ten of the leading countries of the region, straddling the Arab World, Israel, Iran and Turkey. It tells the story of drug-related experiences where they most impinge on the peoples and societies of the region.In addition to the social role of illegal drugs, their political and economic impact are also covered, including: war and drugs in Iraq; drugs and development in Yemen; and youth policy and drugs in Saudi Arabia.

Drug-Crime Connections challenges the assumption that there is a widespread association between drug use and crime. Instead, it argues that there are many highly specific connections. The authors draw together in a single volume a wide range of findings from a study of nearly 5,000 arrestees interviewed as part of the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW-ADAM) programme. It provides an in-depth study of the nature of drug-crime connections, as well as an investigation into drug use generally among criminals and the kinds of crimes that they commit. They explore topics that previously have fallen outside the drug-crime debate, such as gender and drugs, ethnicity and drugs, gangs, guns, drug markets, and treatment needs. The book provides both an up-to-date review of the literature and a concise summary of a major study on the connection between drug use and crime.

'Unique and engaging characters woven into the fabric of a fantastic plot. Jason Dean is one to watch' Marc Cameron, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Clancy Code of Honor What is a death sentence to a dead man?He was a man with many names. Moving from country to country, changing his face constantly so as to remain in the shadows, he was nothing more than a ghost. For now, he is known simply as Korso. A covert salvage operative, he recovers lost artefacts and items, often stolen, for rich benefactors unable to operate through normal channels. But his shadowy existence is shattered upon the arrival at his Bermuda home of the man he had hoped never to see again... Tasked with recovering a missing, one-of-a-kind shipment in only four days, his elite skill set will be tested to its limits. Failure will result in his identity being revealed to his former boss, the ruthless Nikolic, who would stop at nothing to eliminate the one man who walked away from his organisation. An exceptional, white-knuckle thriller full of intrigue and suspense, perfect for fans of Rob Sinclair, Mark Dawson and Adam Hamdy. Praise for Tracer 'Tracer, Korso's first outing, is everything you could want in a thriller; fast-pace, suspense, mystery, just the right amount of wickedness, but above all else a protagonist who the reader will want to read more and more of. A real page turner' Rob Sinclair, million copy bestselling author of The Red Cobra 'Meet Korso, a mysterious and unique character you won't be able to get enough of. In a thriller novel I want tension, pace and ample action, and in Tracer, Jason Dean has delivered by the bucketful' Matt Hilton, author of the Joe Hunter thrillers 'A relentless round of fast and furious set pieces, out-pacing Reacher for tension and with non-stop violence and intrigue to satisfy any thriller fans' Adrian Magson, author of The Watchman 'A thrilling, race-against-time ride ... a great start to what I'm sure will be a hugely successful thriller series' A. A. Chaudhuri, author of The Scribe 'The most explosive book I've read in ages' D. L. Marshall, author of Anthrax Island 'A superb, fast-paced thriller which literally ticks like a time-bomb' Nick Oldham, author of the Henry Christie series

From Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, authors of the PEN Center USA award-winning DALLAS 1963, comes a madcap narrative about Timothy Leary's daring prison escape and run from the law.

On the moonlit evening of September 12, 1970, an ex-Harvard professor with a genius IQ studies a twelve-foot high fence topped with barbed wire. A few months earlier, Dr. Timothy Leary, the High Priest of LSD, had been running a gleeful campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan. Now, Leary is six months into a ten-year prison sentence for the crime of possessing two marijuana cigarettes.

Trying to Make It is R. V. Gundur's journey from the US-Mexico border to America's heartland, from America's prisons to its streets, in search of the true story of the drug trade and the people who participate in it. The book begins in the Paso del Norte area, encompassing the sister cities of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, which has been in the public eye as calls for securing the border persist. From there, it moves on to Phoenix, which was infamously associated with the drug trade through a series of kidnappings. Finally, the book goes on to Chicago, which has been a lightning rod of criticism for its gangs and violence. Gundur highlights the similarities and differences that exist in the American drug trade within the three sites and how they relate to current drug trade narratives in the US. At each stop, the reader is transported to the city's historical and contemporary contexts of the drug trade and introduced to the individuals who have lived them. Drug retailers, street and prison gang members, wholesalers, and the law enforcement personnel who try to stop them offer readers a comprehensive look at how various illicit enterprises work together to supply the drugs that American users demand. Most importantly, through a combination of macro- and microlevel vantage points, and comparative analysis of three key sites in illicit drug operations, the stories in Trying to Make It remind us that the people involved in the drug trade, for the most part, do not deserve vilification. Far from being a seemingly uniform, widespread threat or an unlimited array of bogeymen and women, they are ordinary people, living ordinary lives, just trying to make it.

Individuals who have committed a number of crimes over their lifetimes have had complex, multi-faceted life experiences often characterized by extreme disadvantage and victimization. Those who are formally designated as "high-risk" by the Canadian criminal justice system often have a record of violent or sexual crimes. As a result, they are usually subject to additional monitoring in the community after completing a prison sentence. Pathways to Ruin? disentangles the numerous elements and pathways that lead to high rates of reoffending by focusing on developmental periods of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The book uses a case-study approach to consider individuals' entire crime pathway by examining the circumstances and factors that contribute to assumptions or official designations of "high-risk" behaviour. Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot and Tamara Humphrey overhaul society's popular crime narratives and instead draw on sociological and criminological perspectives to identify historical, social, and personal contexts that appear to increase the likelihood of reoffending. They also consider how negative life experiences may be addressed to circumvent trajectories of serious offending. Reducing the social distance that the "law-abiding" public may feel towards marginalized groups, Pathways to Ruin? details how legal systems could better serve these individuals, and acknowledges the many missed opportunities for compassion.

The explosive memoir of legendary DEA agents and the subject of the hit Netflix series Narcos, Steve Murphy and Javier F. Pena For the first time, legendary DEA operatives Steve Murphy and Javier F. Pena tell the true story of how they took down Pablo Escobar. Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's brutal Medellin Cartel was responsible for trafficking tonnes of cocaines to North America and Europe in the 1980s and '90s. Colombia became a war zone as his sicarios mercilessly murdered thousands of people - competitors, police and civilians - to ensure he remained Colombia's reigning kingpin. With billions in personal income, Escobar bought off politicians and lawmen and became a hero to poorer communities by building houses and sports centres. He was untouchable. But when Escobar became one of America's most wanted, agents Steve Murphy and Javier F Pena were tasked with ending his reign of terror. For eighteen months, Steve and Javier lived and worked beside Colombian authorities, finding themselves in the crosshairs of sicarios who were targeting them for the $300,000 bounty Escobar placed on their heads. Undeterred, they risked the dangers, relentlessly and ruthlessly separating the drug lord from his resources and allies, tearing apart his empire, and sending him underground and on the run from enemies on both sides of the law. From their rigorous physical training and early assignments in Miami and Austin, to the Colombian mission that would make their names, Manhuntersis the jaw-dropping true story of how the world's most infamous narcoterrorist was finally put out of business. * "Riveting. A must-read for anyone interested in one of the major campaigns on the war on drugs." Publishers Weekly "A thriller-esque account...keep[s] the pages turning." Kirkus Reviews "A gripping insider account of the hunt for Pablo Escobar. Brilliant, bold, and no holds barred, this is an impeccable true crime story, told by the two brave men who risked everything to bring down the world's first narco-terrorist. A five-star read!" Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 'Spymaster' "Manhunters is a riveting account of two brave DEA Agents who put their lives, along with their families lives, on the line to fight the war on drugs in the US and Colombia. A must read on the take down of Pablo Escobar and the part they played in the investigation." Joe Pistone, a.k.a. Donnie Brasco "A fast-paced tale by two agents for the DEA who had the inside track on bringing down the most wanted man in recent U.S history." Bruce Porter, New York Times bestselling author of 'Blow' and 'Snatched' "Manhunters is a gripping story about two true patriots who were the difference makers in the final hunt for Pablo Escobar. They are heroes to a world that was otherwise held captive by the evil of the planet's first narco-terrorist. Their bravery is unparalleled, and we owe them a great deal of gratitude for their selfless sacrifices. It is an honor to know them and their story." ?Robert Mazur, New York Times bestselling author of The Infiltrator "Steve and Javier's experience on the front lines of the war on drugs over the last thirty years made them an invaluable source of information for us. Their contacts, both foreign and domestic, allowed us to put together a narrative of one of the most complex, poorly reported, and misunderstood chapters in our recent past." Eric Newman, Executive Producer, 'Narcos' "Steve Murphy and Javier Pena recount their involvement in the pursuit and ultimate victory over a savvy and ruthless killer who declared an uncivil war against his own country. Never failing to credit Colombian heroism in this gripping struggle, Murphy and Pena offer fresh details of the chase for Pablo Escobar that resulted in his defeat and reclamation of the country from the deadly forces of narco-terrorism. A must-read for any fan of Narcos!" Chris Brancato, Executive Producer, 'Narcos' "Steve Murphy and Javier Pena are the real deal; true heroes of the drug war. Manhunters outlines the most important operation in the history of DEA; the killing of the most brutal and notorious drug lord in the world, Pablo Escobar. They give an incredible account of that day in Medellin, Colombia, when Pablo was killed by Colombian police that were supported, advised, and trained by these two American warriors who were on the scene when it all happened. This book is a great read and a critical account of DEA's finest hour." LTG (Ret.) William G. Boykin, Former Commander of U.S. Army Special Forces and Founding Member of Delta Force "Manhunters grabs you from the first page and gives you a front-row seat into the harrowing inter-agency and international hunt for the brutal narcotrafficker Pablo Escobar. Two unlikely heroes recount their stories in a way that is both compelling and captivating." Congresswoman Mary Bono "A compelling read about the adventures of two true American law enforcement heroes who ultimately took on the world's first narco-terrorist, the world's most wanted criminal, the world's largest cocaine baron, Pablo Escobar, and won! They include accounts of other investigations, personal challenges, and the sacrifices made not only by them but their families as well." Barbara Comstock, former VA congresswoman